Valley View sparring resumes

Thursday

Sep 20, 2012 at 2:00 AM

GOSHEN — Lawmakers clashed Wednesday over a recent report on Orange County's nursing home in what amounted to a warmup for a looming showdown over the future of the Valley View Center for Nursing Care and Rehabilitation.

CHRIS MCKENNA

GOSHEN — Lawmakers clashed Wednesday over a recent report on Orange County's nursing home in what amounted to a warmup for a looming showdown over the future of the Valley View Center for Nursing Care and Rehabilitation.

During a meeting that stretched more than three hours, the Legislature's Health and Mental Health Committee roamed through a series of topics involving the 360-bed facility, including a report issued this month by a legislative committee that criticized Valley View's contracted management and suggested that the facility's expenses have been greatly overstated.

Lawmakers who support selling Valley View to a private operator took issue with the report by pointing to statements they said were too vague or didn't cite a source and by disputing figures or questioning the expertise of witnesses the committee interviewed.

"Parts of it are not helpful at all, the way it was put together," said Melissa Bonacic, the Legislature's Republican leader.

Opponents fired back that County Executive Ed Diana and other witnesses who refused to testify under oath before the committee did not use their opportunity to respond to others' statements at the hearings.

The marathon session began with a discussion with the Legislature's auditors, who ostensibly came to talk about budgeting for Valley View in 2013. Legislature Chairman Michael Pillmeier told lawmakers he had asked the O'Connor Davies accountants to offer "different scenarios" for funding the home next year if Diana fails to do so in the budget he's due to propose by Oct. 1.

But that is not what the committee got. Instead, one company representative talked about changes in the Medicaid reimbursement system, suggesting a tougher climate ahead, and another warned that funding Valley View might force the county to drain its surplus.

"There aren't many options for contributing to the subsidy of Valley View unless the economy rebounds," accountant Nicholas DeSantis said.

Lawmakers who support keeping the home in county hands bristled.

"I guess there's no mystery to me what we were going to be told today, and I guess I would call it scare tactics," said Roxanne Donnery, a Highland Falls Democrat.

Diana, who sat through the entire meeting, reiterated his administration's warning that funding Valley View next year will require raising taxes above the state-imposed cap or laying off county employees in other departments.

"That's not a 'scare tactic,' " he said. "That's a fact."

The county executive has said he refuses to raises taxes beyond the cap.

Without taking action, the committee also discussed a proposal by Donnery to put the discussion of selling Valley View on hold for at least two years while bringing in a new administrator and trying to improve the home's finances.